Bird Headed & Surreal

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The Dynamics of Fear - Gordon Coldwell

The Dynamics of Fear

Frozen Distraction - Gordon Coldwell

Frozen Distraction

‘Frozen Distraction’... pictures a virtual room occupied by surreal bird headed characters. At the rear of the composition is an image of a contemporary office space overlooking a modern cityscape. The office space is occupied by a troupe of multi-coloured circus characters... an artwork work of mine called ‘The Audition’. A black Panther enters stage left and everything freezes.

The image can be read in a number of ways. For me, it is reminiscent of the real experience of when I was a marketing business owner and the experience of attending many business breakfast networking events. Typically, all of the participants were charged with enthusiasm, speaking very quickly and earnestly (a lot like ‘speed dating’ I guess), ‘selling’ the benefits of their services or products to whoever would listen or was ‘trapped’. When a new business representative entered the ‘arena’, heads would immediately turn their attention to the new arrival – the black Panther – the room frozen.

Another Midsummer Night's Dream - Gordon Coldwell

Another Midsummer Night's Dream

Helen Ascending - Daughter of Leda - Gordon Coldwell

Helen Ascending - Daughter of Leda

Spring Bride - Gordon Coldwell
Discreet Tattoos - Gordon Coldwell

Spring Bride

Discreet Tattoos

The Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, is known for his detailed painted head portraits - the features of which consist of fruit and vegetables. Arcimboldo's portraits might well be described as a Surrealist in nature.

Discreet Tattoos started out with an Arcimboldo portrait of a woman. With my bird's head and 2 gold rings additions etc... it can be described as Art About Art. I prefer to think of it as Surrealism-squared.

Exotic Birdsong - Gordon Coldwell

Exotic Birdsong

French Duckess - Gordon Coldwell
The Ubiquity of Icons - Gordon Coldwell

The French Duchess

The Ubiquity of Icons

This surreal bird-headed portrait is a hybrid work combining: a broken cage (all icons, arguably, are contained in cultural cages of perfection); a Peregrine Falcon (in ancient Egypt falcon heads appeared on human figures in sculptures and in painted hieroglyphs and worshipped as the deity of kingship and the rising sun); Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, both ultra world-famous portraits.

The Golden Monarch - Gordon Coldwell

The Golden Monarch

Max Ernst's Anatomy Lesson - Gordon Coldwell

Max Ernst's Anatomy Lesson

The composition is a combination of borrowed extracts from Rembrandt's, The Anatomy Lesson of Prof. Tulp, Manet's Olympia and a hawk-headed nod to the Surrealist artist, Max Ernst. The hybrid outcome is a surprising, eyebrow-raising encounter of repositioned disparate elements that together allude to a completely new narrative.

A Lesson in Faith & Fidelity - Gordon Coldwell

A Lesson in Faith & Fidelity

For Your Pleasure - Gordon Coldwell

For Your Pleasure

 When Leonardo Thought About Carel's Girlfriend - Gordon Coldwell
Fuselli's Demons - Gordon Coldwell
When Rembrandt Saw Himself as a Surrealist

When Leonardo Thought About Carel's Girlfriend

Fuselli's Demons

When Rembrandt Saw Himself as a Surrealist

Luxe Leap - Gordon Coldwell
Blue Moon - Gordon Coldwell

Luxe Leap

Blue Moon

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